OTR Interviews

Cain: Colorado delegate controversy just a 'blip' on the screen in primary process

This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," April 13, 2016. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: Donald Trump is not slowing down on his ongoing rough and tumble battle with the GOP over what he calls unfair delegate rules.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The Colorado thing was very, very unfair. And I thought Louisiana was very unfair. I won Louisiana. I won it easily.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: You won the popular vote.

TRUMP: I won the popular vote. And because of all these shenanigans that goes on it, this --

COOPER: You call them shenanigans. Those are the rules. Didn't you know those rules?

TRUMP: You know why the rules? I know the rules very well, but I know that it's stacked against me by the establishment. I fully understand it. We had people out there and they weren't heard.

And then in fact, today, when it was announced -- the numbers were announced, they put out something on Twitter saying, oh, we stopped Trump. Essentially, we stop Trump. We stop Trump.

That was put out by the party in Colorado. The point is it was stacked against us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAN SUSTEREN: But RNC is not staying silent. Republican National Committee Chairperson Reince Priebus firing back at Trump with this tweet: "Nomination process known for a year and beyond. It's the responsibility of the campaigns to understand it. Complaints now? Give us all a break."

So, if you are the mediator on this one or the arbiter on this one, are you team Reince Priebus or are you team Donald Trump as to this spat over the delegate system?

CAIN: I would be team move on, OK. Colorado is just merely a small feud. That really is no feud between the RNC and Donald Trump, because the RNC did not set the rules of Colorado.

Granted, it's controversial, but let's move on. The bigger prizes are coming up in New York, Pennsylvania, California, and all of these other states. I wouldn't focus on Colorado. It's controversial, but I don't think that that's a game changer.

VAN SUSTEREN: I will tell you what has caught my attention.

First of all, the rules were established a long time ago. I got that. I think by October 1st.

CAIN: Right.

VAN SUSTEREN: And every campaign had access to it. It didn't matter, you know, who you were. You were one of the 17 or whatever it was. Everybody had access to it.

But the Colorado GOP tweeting out on April 9th, "We did it," #NeverTrump.

And, you know, if that doesn't say something. I mean, that certainly, you know, that certainly it sounds like something isn't quite right in Colorado. That's very suspicious.

CAIN: Right.

VAN SUSTEREN: But even more than that is that these Colorado Republicans say they are investigating it.

Well, that's gotten a little silly now. Someone uses my account. All I have to say is, who has my password. And it sort of, you know, it's a little disingenuous to act like this is, you know, an FBI investigation to see who hacked into the Pentagon. I mean, they know who did this. But, you know, they are slow-walking it.

CAIN: You are absolutely right, Greta. And what you just -- what you just illustrated relative to Colorado is the fact that it's not about Colorado versus Trump or anybody else. It's about quote, unquote, "The establishment that's against Trump."

And when people in Colorado or the people that are participating in the party, Republican Party in Colorado, they are bragging about the fact that they stopped Trump. That's the bigger feud. And that's what's going to basically outrage many of the people that are Republicans in Colorado, who didn't get a chance to vote. And, like I said, let's move on.

VAN SUSTEREN: But, no, no. But wait a second. It looks a little deeper. I mean, if I were on the receiving end of this, I wouldn't be happy. Because you could have one jerk who tweets that, I got it. But then where is the rest of the party in Colorado that they haven't come -- they haven't really told who did it. What were the circumstances? And instead they are doing a cover-up. They are saying, well, we are just doing an investigation. I call that a cover-up.

They may just say that it's some, you know, huge, deep investigation. I just don't buy it. And so that makes me now suspicious and it really does sort of undermine the integrity of the Colorado Republican Party and how they conducted their business.

So, you know -- so, you know, what's the hold-up? Tell us what happened.

CAIN: In that regard, I would agree with you. You are absolutely right. It does seem as if there might be something else, but we don't know at this point. What we do know is that there are a lot of delegates out there left in these upcoming primaries.

Trump is leading in New York. He is leading in Pennsylvania. He is leading in California. Let's focus on that.

Look, Colorado is a blip in my opinion in terms of this whole process. Are there some questions about the process in some of these states, yes. But I wouldn't focus on that.

VAN SUSTEREN: Here's the problem. Look, I think we can multi-task, and you say move on. That's terrific, but that sort of sweeps it under the carpet for what happened. Maybe it's not something sinister that happened, but I think we can multitask. And I don't blame Trump for raising hell that, you know, what's going on in Colorado.

He knew the rules, you know. And, actually, I'm against him on that part. But I don't understand. But I'm taking the last word on this.